Gagan blames his rifle for missing fifth CWG gold

New Delhi, Oct 13 (IANS) Ace shooter Gagan Narang blamed his Walther rifle for missing the record equalling five gold medals on the last day of the shooting competition in the Commonwealth Games here Wednesday.

World No.3 Narang, who won four gold medals in the pairs and individual events of 10 metre air riffle and 50 metre three positions, said that he was happy with his performance despite failing to qualify for the final of the 50 metre prone position here at the Karni Singh Shooting Range.

“I am very happy with my performance, four gold medals with four new Games record is good. I did struggle a bit with prone position but I think we should look at the positives,” said Narang.

After winning four gold medals, Narang was expected to triumph in the individual and the pairs event of his last event 50 metre prone. But his luck ran out.

In the pairs event, Narang and his partner Hariom Singh finished a shocking fifth. Narang shot a good 594, but Hariom, who is battling viral fever, shot a poor 584 as India finished with 1173 points. On Wednesday, Narang failed to qualify for the final of the individual event after he lost in a shoot-off.

Narang, however, refused to blame his partner.

“The person is doing his best. It’s a team effort and you can’t blame just one person for not doing well. We can take a lot of lessons from the losses,” Narang said.

Rifle coach Stanislav Lapidus said Narang didn’t have a good barrel while others were using much better guns.

“I am happy with the overall performance but I was expecting more from Gagan. But don’t blame him, you can blame his gun,” Lapidus said.

Narang, however, is getting a new rifle before the World Cup finals scheduled to be held later this month.

National coach Sunny Thomas said Narang would not use it in the World Cup finals but will use it in next month’s Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.